2019 Human Factors Final Project
Pokemon Go Redesign
Pokémon Go have contributed to approximately 150,000 traffic accidents, 256 deaths in the first 148 days after its introduction to the U.S. (Revell, 2017). In hopes to minimize the accidents, I redesigned the user interface and experience by analyzing what human factors were behind while playing this game.
Skills: Task Analysis, Human Factors Analysis, Think Aloud, Semi-Structured Interview
Current UI/UX
Pokémon Go is an augmented reality mobile game that uses GPS to locate, capture, battle, and train virtual creatures, called Pokémon.
User Interface
In the home screen, the users are provided with the GPS information based on their location with available Pokémons around the radius.
User Experience
Users touches the available Pokémon on the screen order to engage and capture them. Once engaged, they use their finger to touch the Pokéball on the bottom center and flick it to throw it.
Notification
The game notifies the users to be careful in three different screens.
Loading screen - Informs the user to always be cautious at all times
Pop-up screen - Reminds the user to not trespass any restricted areas
Driving Warning Screen - Automatically notifies the user when the user is moving too fast
Loading Screen
Pop-Up Screen
Driving Warning Screen
Despite the design of this game alerting the user through multiple screens, various injuries and deaths were inevitable due to inattention.
Furthermore, it is difficult for humans to multitask, which is why users are unable to constantly focus on the game and become aware of their surroundings simultaneously.
Task Analysis
To reflect the real game experience of the Pokémon Go as much as possible, participants were asked to play the game indoors as they walk from one destination to another without any interference from the experimenter .
All participants were required to think aloud as they executed the task and some semi-structured interviews were asked after the task was finished.
Task Sequence
User opens the game and starts walking from Point A to B while experimenter records time.
User needs to think aloud and catch at least five Pokémons before reaching destination.
After reaching Point B, user walks back to Point A. Experimenter records time once more.
Results/Observation
Longer Duration of Walking
Average Duration when multitasking - 4m 27s
Average Duration when just walking - 3m 25s
Failure to Notice
Blue Machine (Salient hue of turquoise)
Black Cart (Rattling noise of the wheels)
Police Officer (Clinging noise of the key chains)
Despite their conspicuous features, all participants claimed that they didn’t notice them.
Human Factors
Situational Awareness
According to Endsley’s research (1995), situational awareness is a combination of goal-directed (top-down) and data-directed (bottom-up) processing.
Participants were focused on their current goal of walking and playing but lacked data from the situation because the application itself did not give any cues that guide their attention.
Therefore, my redesign will include some form of salient cues from the application that alerts the users as they walk and play.
Multiple Resource Theory
Multiple resource theory states that dual-task performance is more likely to be hampered by performing similar tasks than dissimilar tasks. Furthermore, the difficulty of a task is increased when additional resources are needed for its performance (Wickens, 1984).
This would explain why participants took longer to arrive at the destination because participants needed to walk, touch, navigate and flick.
My redesign will make the interaction more simple so that it reduces the resource of actions required when playing the game.
Redesign
Original AR Interface
Redesigned AR Interface
I realized that using AR is useful to make participants aware of their setting because it literally shows what’s ahead of them. However, users usually turn off this function because it interrupts their gameplay since it’s harder to navigate the Pokémon with AR mode.
Therefore I redesigned it so that Pokémon appearing on screen would be fixated on the middle location even if they move their camera so that it doesn’t disturb their game experience. Furthermore, the AR mode will highlight any segments on the screen that the applications feels like it’s a threat, similar to face recognition system, This will give salient cues for the users of their situation as they play the game.
Original User Interface
Redesigned User Interface
When the AR mode is off, I’ve changed the interface so that both the GPS and the Pokémon comes out, so that users can use one screen to navigate and play without having to move their heads up and down as much when locating themselves.
Original User Experience
Instead of giving more additional resource of actions when catching a Pokémon, I redesigned the game interaction so that userㄴ hold the Pokéball with their thumb which powers up how far it will be thrown after the user lets his/her thumb go. The power bar is displayed only when the user holds the ball with their thumb. The holding action is same as touching the screen which will minimize the actions required more than flicking with finger.
Redesigned User Experience
Reflection
This project aimed to change the design of the game application Pokémon Go to give users more situational awareness by giving more salient cues and reducing multiple resource of actions.
Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to conduct any usability test to confirm whether these changes made the users attend more to their surroundings. Nevertheless, this research created the cornerstone to my understanding of a safer user experience to any mobile game applications.
I believe safety of any user is the most valuable aspect of user experience design.
Reference
Endsley, M. R. (1995, March). Toward a Theory of Situation Awareness in Dynamic Systems. Human Factors Journal, 37(1), 32-64.
Gopher D., Greenshpan Y., Armony L. (1996) Switching attention between tasks: Exploration of the components of executive control and their development with training, in: Proceedings of the 40th Annual Meeting of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, Santa Monica: Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, 1060-1064, DOI:
Revell, T. (2017, November 28). Did Pokémon Go really kill 250 people in traffic accidents?. New Scientist. https://www.newscientist.com/article/2154881-did-pokemon-go-really-kill-250-people-in-traffic-accidents/
Wickens, C. D. (1984). Processing Resources in Attention. Varieties of Attention, 63-102.